He moved to California in the mid '90s at the start of the tech boom and co-founded PayPal. He was one of the first investors in Facebook and has since started a raft of tech, finance and venture capital firms.

Politics, seasteading and life extension

The Seasteading Institute, which Thiel has given money to, wants to build a floating city in the Pacific. Photo: Supplied / The Seasteading Institute

Mr Thiel is known as a libertarian, and in an essay in 2009 he declared that freedom and democracy were incompatible and that technology was the only way to make a difference in the world.

He advocated exploring the possibilities of colonising space as an "escape from world politics", but thought "seasteading" (making permanent floating cities on the ocean away from the grasp of national governments) was more realistic than space travel.

He co-founded the Seasteading Institute, which works to make that a reality, and has also backed groups working on extending the human lifespan.

The article did not say whether Mr Thiel was among that group, but said he was among high-net-worth individuals to have bought property in this country.

And one last fun fact: Mr Thiel seems to be a Tolkien fanatic. He has named a number of companies for characters in the author's books, some of which require an expert level knowledge of Middle Earth to discern, including: Rivendell LLC, Mithril Capital, Arda Capital and Valar Ventures.